Will Malaysia have a second chance to achieve our potential to become a world-class great nation?

I wish Malaysians Happy Water Tiger Chinese New Year.

This is likely to be a decisive year for Malaysia for many decades to come.

The 15th General Election is likely to be held this year and will determine whether we can begin to end the half-a-century national decline and begin the long, painful and arduous process to fulfil the national potential to become a world-class great nation before Malaysia’s Centennial in 2063.

Malaysians were given the first chance in the 14th General Election on May 9, 2018 to stop the decline of the past half-a-century and to buck up and fulfil Bapa Malaysia Tunku Abdul Rahman’s aspiration to be “a beacon of light in a difficult and distracted world”.

For the past half-a-century, Malaysia failed to be “a beacon of light” to a multi-racial, multi-lingual, multi-religious and multi-cultural Malaysia – frozen only for tourists in the campaign slogan of “Instant Asia” – let alone “a beacon of light in a difficult and distracted world”.

This failure spawned the Malaysian Diaspora where over a million Malaysians, regardless of race or religion, felt more at home in various countries abroad than in Malaysia.

How sad and tragic for their place is in Malaysia, to help Malaysia become a world-class great nation and not to make other nations achieve world-class standards.

But the first chance to save Malaysia from kleptocracy and mediocrity was sabotaged by the Sheraton Move conspiracy after 22 months.

Can Malaysia have a second chance in the 15th General Election to stop the decline of half-a-century and to fulfil Malaysia’s potential to become a world-class great nation – and in the process stop the making of a second Malaysian Diaspora in the world?

Let us begin the long, painful and arduous process to save Malaysia from kleptocracy, kakistocracy and a failed state and fulfil Tunku Abdul Rahman’s aspiration for Malaysia to become a world-class great nation starting with the Johore state general election which will be held shortly.

Lim Kit Siang MP for Iskandar Puteri